The Professional Esports Association (PEA) was announced last week with commitment from seven leading North American esports organizations at launch, ESPN reports.

PEA aims to be the pre-eminent esports league worldwide, with a focus on bringing more benefits to pro players – reinforcing esports' legitimacy and staying power as a spectator sport.

The vision is to grow PEA into an owner-operated league on a scale similar to the NBA. PEA is an association of top esports teams, running their own league, sharing in the decision-making with players, and splitting the profits. The association kicks off in January, when it will host a tournament for the first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with a minimum $1 million prize pool for its inaugural year.

Seven leading esports teams have already committed to the new league, including Team SoloMid, Cloud9, Team Liquid, Counter Logic Gaming, Immortals, NRG esports and compLexity Gaming. These teams feature in divisions for numerous games – meaning that they field teams specializing in a range of different game titles. Together, they are the founding team franchises for PEA, much like the Basketball Association of America (the NBA’s antecedent) began with 11 franchises in June 1946.

PEA should alert companies to the opportunities that exist in this still-nascent, but rapidly growing space. This year, the industry is expected to hit $463 million in revenue, up 43% from last year, and is forecasted to pass $1 billion in total revenue by 2019, according to estimates from esports intelligence company Newzoo. The new organization will is another step to maturity for the budding esports industry:

The league adds structure and credibility to the industry. PEA adapts the managerial architecture of established sports leagues, including corporate governance, sport regulation, player care, and more. It establishes the long-term architecture to build a stable and healthy environment for players, fans, media, and sponsors.

It gives current stakeholders more security. The league sets out to share industry rewards among owners and players, who will receive an equal 50% portion of profits, retirement services, investment planning, health insurance, and more.

Empowers players with a say in proceedings. Players will be involved in strategic decisions around league operations – like competition format, playing rules and prize distributions – by having representatives on the newly formed Rules and and Grievances committees.